a Piper’s child. In that same instant the tall green Denizens had eruptedfrom the hedge, Phineas had grown and changed. He was now a commanding figure some ten feet tall. He stood above Arthur, holding the writhing Keys in the net with his left hand, while his right was held tight around a small object that he wore on a chain around his neck.
The only thing that was not altered was the intense darkness of his eyes.
“Bind him with the chains,” instructed Lord Sunday. “Be careful. He is very strong.”
C HAPTER SIX
“A re you sure this is safe?” asked Giac. He was holding on nervously to Suzy’s shoulder as they descended on the South-West Big Chain. While the grease monkeys regularly used the various moving chains to go between floors of the tower, Sorcerous Supernumeraries usually took the elevator, so this was a new experience for Giac.
The South-West Big Chain was like a greatly oversize motorcycle chain that ran the thousands of feet from the unseen nether regions of Saturday’s tower to a vast bronze guide wheel that wassituated near the top. The Chain ran in a broad shaft, going up one side and down the other. Each link was six feet tall and six feet wide, and had a flat space in the middle where the grease monkeys stood, sat or even slept as the Chain rattled up or down.
“Course it’s safe,” said Suzy. “Provided you don’t fall off.”
“Oh,” said Giac. He peered a little towards the edge and gulped. “Where are we going? And whose side am I on again?”
“We’re going to the elevator control floors,” said Suzy. “And you’re on Lord Arthur’s side. Unless we meet up with the Piper’s forces first. Then we tell ’em that we’re on the Piper’s side, though we’ll still really be on Arthur’s side. It’d be a thingummy, a rose of war.”
“A subterfuge,” suggested Part Six of the Will, who was lurking inside Giac’s partially furled umbrella so that only the top part of his beak was visible, and that only on close inspection. “A legitimate ruse.”
“But will Lord Arthur want me?” asked Giac anxiously. “You said that I can decide to change sides,but the other side has to take me on. Will Lord Arthur take me on?”
“As it ’appens, I am Arthur’s right-hand man,” said Suzy. “Or left-hand girl, I can’t remember where I stood last time. Anyhow, me and Arthur is like two fingers of a gauntlet. Or at least the thumb and the little finger. I mean, I’m his top General and all. So if I say you’re in, you’re in.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” said Giac.
“None of that,” admonished Suzy. “Call me Suzy.”
“As you command, Lady Suzy,” said Giac. “Oh, the floor below is manned!”
They had been passing floor after empty floor as the Chain descended, the desks abandoned by sorcerers who had been drafted to fight the Piper below or join the invasion of the Incomparable Gardens above. Suzy had begun to think they might be lucky and find that the floor they needed, where the desks that controlled the elevators were located, was also abandoned. But they were now passing floors that were still fully staffed with thousands of sorcerers at their desks, their blue umbrellas now furled at their sides since the ten-thousand-year rain had stopped. Fortunately they were intent on theirwork, and the few that glanced across did not find the sight of what appeared to be a grease monkey and a Sorcerous Supernumerary on the passing Chain to be of any interest.
“Do you have a plan, Lady Suzy?” asked the Will. “As to how we will activate the elevators?”
“Course I do,” snorted Suzy.
“Good,” said the Will.
There was silence as they descended several more floors, then the raven poked its head out of Giac’s umbrella a little more, so that one sharp eye stared up at Suzy.
“As we will shortly arrive at our destination, would you like to share this plan?” the Will asked.
“I’m thinking,” said Suzy. She certainly looked thoughtful, staring
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